“I’m really glad that Performance Mix #34: Remotely Yours turned out to be so productive for me. I was able to wrap my head around the ideas that were all circling in my head.”
–Annie Heath
Wearing a vintage style bathing suit and sunglasses, ground breaking multi-disciplinary artist Karen Bernard creates a heightened performance from mundane activities and images as she grapples with memory, loss, acceptance and mortality. Within a durational and evolving video installation, Bernard’s exhilarating performance is not unlike a doll in a jewelry box, bending and shifting with nuanced attractive and unattractive posturing. Developed at Foundation Obras at Evoramonte, Portugal, Poolside uses found architecture and unexpected projection angles, playing with the tension of seeing and being seen. Set to an emotional pop score, Bernard evokes nostalgia and exuberance, transporting us into the lazy days of summer in the middle of winter.
Performance and Video Installation: Karen Bernard
Dramaturg: Andi Stover
Lighting collaboration: Emma Rivera
Installation Sound Score: Boris Billier
Poster Design: Travis DeMello
Read more about Poolside: Lisa Parra in Conversation with Karen Bernard [PDF] in Movement Research Critical Correspondence, 4/15/19
Artist and Choreographer Karen Bernard presented her newest video installation with performance entitled Poolside as part of a month-long residency, February 19 – 23, 2019, at Chashama’s 320 West 23rd Street space.
The development of Poolside was made possible through Foundation Obras and a Chashama Place to Present.